Keeping the Faith
by muffin1513
Summary: rated M for occasional language and adult situations. A series of Finchel oneshots following my story In Search of Faith.
1. Afraid of Changes

**Well hey, I am mortified that it took me this long to get this out. But I've been SWAMPED lately! I will apologize but I really couldn't have gotten this out sooner if any of you expected it to be any good. This is the first of *hopefully* many oneshots set in the AU of In Search of Faith. The oneshots will not be in chronological order but will be written according to the order in which I come up with them. :) The songs used are Godspeed by the Dixie Chicks and River by Sarah McLachlan. In the Kate section, some words will be spelled wrong and there will be some grammar mistakes, that's because Kate is 4 and doesn't know any better. I do not own the songs, or any of the characters (aside from the children *except Beth* and periodic OCs) enjoy!**

_**-December 14th 2016-**_

_**-Rachel-**_

"shhh." My voice comes out a little worn out and broken, as I softly rock the tiny infant in my arms. "Momma's here." I soothe him as he whimpers and tries to adjust his lovely honey brown eyes to the light. He has a tiny tuft of dark brown hair and his cheeks are a deep pink, as well as his nose and fingers. He stares up at me, curiously, yawns and nestles against my chest.

Finn has been silent for a good twenty minutes. Lying next to me on the hospital bed, his legs dangling off the side because he could barely squeeze in next to me but I insisted.

"Finn?" I whisper as our baby's eyes gently close.

"Yeah babe?" He chokes out. It is then that I realize he's been crying. Not a lot, but it's just like when we saw Katie's ultrasound for the first time. He was just overwhelmed by his emotions.

"What do you think of, Aiden Christopher?" The name just felt right on my tongue. We had already agreed on Christopher being the middle name, after Finn's late father. But none of the names we'd stumbled upon seemed right.

"That's perfect." He murmurs into my hair, while his hand carefully sweeps over Aiden's cheek, his fingers looking enormous next to the infant's tiny face.

Now my voice came out steady, quiet and even delicate as I sang the first lullaby to our son.

_Dragon tales and the "water is wide"_  
_Pirate's sail and lost boys fly_  
_Fish bite moonbeams every night_  
_And I love you_

_Godspeed, little man_  
_Sweet dreams, little man_  
_Oh my love will fly to you each night on angels wings_  
_Godspeed_  
_Sweet dreams_

_The rocket racer's all tuckered out_  
_Superman's in pajamas on the couch_  
_Goodnight moon, will find the mouse_  
_And I love you_

_Godspeed, little man_  
_Sweet dreams, little man_  
_Oh my love will fly to you each night on angels wings_  
_Godspeed_  
_Sweet dreams_

_God bless mommy and match box cars_  
_God bless dad and thanks for the stars_  
_God hears "Amen," wherever we are_  
_And I love you_

_Godspeed, little man_  
_Sweet dreams, little man_  
_Oh my love will fly to you each night on angels wings_  
_Godspeed_  
_Godspeed_  
_Godspeed_  
_Sweet dreams_

**_-Finn-_**

I could never get tired of this. I'm sure Rachel could, childbirth doesn't look like a walk in the park, and the way she was shouting "Why did you do this to me again?" had me terrified to ever suggest sex again. But this, listening to my beautiful wife sing my son to sleep, this was something I could definitely get used to.

She still sings Katie to sleep, and I always stand outside Katie's bedroom door and listen, sometimes I'll slip in and add my own vocals but usually that keeps Katie awake and asking for more and then Rachel gets annoyed because when Princess Kate doesn't get her sleep she turns into a hellion.

This moment is just so peaceful, the only sound is Rachel's voice.

Until I can hear the quick scuffle of tinkerbell slippers coming down the hall.

Katie's tiny form bounds through the doorway and she leaps onto the bed and lands on my chest. "Daddy!" she whisper-screams.

Kurt follows behind, slightly out of breath. "I warned her to be quiet." He says, looking sternly at Kate, who is now trying squeeze between Rachel and I on the bed.

She notices Aiden in Rachel's arms her her nose wrinkles up. "Who. Is that?"

"That's your new baby brother." I explain.

"He's all tiny and wrinkly, like Riley's guinea pig."

"He's not a guinea pig, sweetie, his name is Aiden and we're going to bring him home. He's part of our family now." Rachel tells her softly.

"But, our family is me, you, daddy, grammy Carole, grampa Burt, pop pop, grampy Lee, uncle Kurt, uncle Puckasaurus, aunt Quinnie, aunt Tany, aunt Brit, uncle Sam, uncle Blaine, Gracie, Gabe, and Beth. There's no room for," she wrinkles up her nose again, "Aiden."

"We'll make room, he's very special to us now, just like you, Katie. We love him, just like we love you." I tell her, kissing her cheek.

"So I have to share you now? You won't love me as much if you have to love him too!" Her voice cracks a little as she stares at Aiden with tears welling up in her eyes.

"Oh, baby, we still love you just as much as we always have. Trust us, having a baby brother will be fun. You can teach him all kinds of big sister things." Rachel tries to comfort her, she looks like she wants to pull Katie into her arms but with the baby, she can't and Katie notices.

"Come here." I say and she crawls up against my chest, sniffling.

"Nothing can ever make your mommy and me love you less okay?" she nods slowly and wraps her skinny arms around my neck.

"Fine, but one brother is enough okay? I don't want any more." She says.

Rachel chuckles, "We'll see what we can do."

**_-Kate-_**

My whole family showed up real fast.

They all keep making weird faces at the dumb baby and tellin mommy and daddy how 'preshus' he is. I don't know what preshus means, but I guess it's a good thing because Mommy smiles everytime someone says it and Daddy makes the same face he made at my last dance recital when my structor told him I was speshal.

Beth is even paying attention to the dumb baby, she didn't even see my new slippers!

"Puckasaurus!" I tug on Uncle Puck's pants until he looks down at me.

"Hey doll." He kneels down in front of me and flips some of my hair out of my eyes. "How's it feel to be a big sister?"

I just shrug, cuz I don't wanna tell him that I hate it.

"He's really cute isn't he?"

"I guess, but I'm still your favorite hudson right?" I smile my biggest smile. The one that looks just like mommy's.

"Now, miss Kate that's not fair. You're not the only mini-hudson anymore, you have to share the spotlight now."

My can feel my smile go away. I just nod. Cuz I don't wanna cry in this room full of people that love the dumb baby more than me.

Now my throats getting all dry and itchy. Cuz I always get thirsty when I'm sad.

Mommy usually gets me a drink of water.

"Mommy, can I go get a drink of the fountain?" I try to stand on my tippy toes to get her attention.

"Mommy?" I ask again. But mommy's talkin to Grammy Carole about goin to Lima for christmas.

"Daddy?" I try to get daddy to answer me, but he's talkin to Uncle Blaine about Uncle Blaine and Uncle Kurt's surgut mommy. I guess the surgut is gonna have babies for them cuz Uncle Kurt can't. Daddy says it's complicated and I won't understand til I'm big.

I sigh and decide that I can go get the water all by myself. Cuz I'm a big sis'r now and big sis'rs can get water on their own.

The fountain is at the end of this big long hallway I think.

As long as I member where mommy's hopstal room is, I won't get lost.

Without Uncle Kurt, the hallway looks really big.

And all the hallways look the same. There's a lot of people in white coats running around, talking about weird things that I don't know what they mean.

In this one hallway there's a lot of crying babies like my brother. It's really loud, and it makes my throat even itchier.

Where's the fountain?

Around one corner I can see it. It's at the end. I run to end, I almost fall cuz this hallway doesn't have a carpet and my slippers are slippery.

But when I get to the fountain I see that I'm not big enough to reach it.

My throat gets really, really dry and my tummy feels empty. I have to take really big breaths and it hurts.

Mommy calls it a panic attack, but I only get them when I'm scared. Like when I saw that lion at the zoo and it got really close to the big fence. Or when I had the scary dream about monster in my closet and Daddy was gone on his tour and couldn't check for me. Or when Mommy and Daddy got into the really big fight and Daddy was sleeping at uncle Puck's for a long time. I had lots of panic attacks then.

I know I have to go back to mommy's room. But my head is going really fast and I can't member where to go.

I have to stop the panic attack or I might be lost forever.

If I'm lost forever I won't be able to teach Aiden little brother stuff. I go back down the hallway and go round a bunch of corners until I get really tired and sit down by the wall.

I close my eyes and hug myself and sing.

_**-Kurt-**_

"WHERE IS SHE!" Rachel shouts after handing Aiden to Carole. "WHO WAS WATCHING HER! DID ANYONE SEE HER LEAVE? WHERE COULD SHE BE? THIS HOSPITAL IS HUGE! SHE COULD HAVE BEEN KIDNAPPED! SHE COULD BE ANYWHERE! OH GOD! FINN!" She's out of the hospital bed and pulling on a housecoat.

"God we weren't paying attention, everyone was so distracted by the baby and there were so many people in here. We know how she gets when there's a lot of people in a small space. We know she has anxiety issues. Why'd we let so many people in here?" Finn rants.

"Calm down. We just need to alert the hospital staff and look around. We all know her, she wouldn't have gone too far." I try to reason with them. Rachel stares blankly at me for a second before bursting into tears.

"My little girl is lost in this enormous hospital, she's probably so scared. Oh! What is she had another panic attack! Oh Finn we need to find her!"

"Ma'am, I'm sorry, is everything okay?" A doctor slips into the room and calmly addresses Rachel's ramblings.

"NO! NOTHING IS OKAY! My daughter is missing! She's four years old, she's got long curly brown hair and brown eyes. She's wearing white and pink polka dotted pajamas and tinkerbell slippers."

"Okay, okay, I'll let the staff know and we'll have security looking for her, okay? Stay calm and I'm sure we'll find her." The doctor nods at Finn and leaves the room.

"We need to look for her, I don't trust him." Rachel whispers, as if the doctor was eavesdropping.

"Okay, let's go. Who was the last person to see her?"

Puck speaks up, "She talked to me a couple minutes before we noticed she was gone. She seemed pretty upset about all the attention the baby was getting, I thought she was gonna cry." He was about to get his coat and head back to his place when we noticed Kate's absence. He was going to see if she wanted to go home with him and have a playdate with Beth while Rachel and Finn get Aiden settled in at home. Quinn and Beth had already left because Beth got really tired and cranky.

"Cry. She probably went to look for a water fountain or something." Rachel deduces.

"She does that too?" Hiram questions.

"Yeah, whenever she would get upset I'd get her glass of water. Now, when she's upset she'll complain that her throat is dry and itchy and she'll be thirsty. So she always asks for water." Rachel explains.

"Okay, we saw a fountain on our way to the room, let's start there." I announce and Finn, Rachel, Puck and I leave the room in search of Kate. Burt, Rachel's fathers and Carole head for the front desk to alert the staff themselves and ask if anyone's seen the little girl.

_**-Rachel-**_

This is all my fault. I should have kept her right by me. She was probably feeling left out and alone. She needs that attention, just like I do. God, I forget how alike we are.

Suddenly I can feel my ear twitch. "Shh!" I hush everyone. They all stare at me quizzically.

_"I wish I had a river, I could skate away on."_

Everyone sprints toward the sound of Kate's voice.

We round a corner and there she is. Sitting on the floor with her back against the wall and her knees pulled up to her chest. Singing to calm herself. I can her shoulders shaking slightly and I know she's had an attack. She's so smart. She knew she needed to calm down before she could get back.

I clasp my hand over my mouth to stifle a sob of relief to see that she's okay.

"Baby?" Finn calls out.

Her little head jerks up and turns in our direction. "Daddy! Mommy!"

Finn hurries over to her and picks her up, cradling her in his arms. He carries her back over to us, where I'm frozen in place.

"Oh, baby, I'm so sorry." I whisper to her.

"I'll call your mother, so they know she's okay." Kurt says to Finn.

"Are you okay miss Kate?" Noah tucks a curl behind her ear.

Katie nods and yawns, leaning her head lazily against Finn's shoulder.

"I don't know what I would have done if we didn't find you." I kiss her forehead and look guiltily up at Finn.

"She's okay, she's smart, she would never walk off with someone she didn't know. She's got your pipes so we'd have heard her is she was hurt or in danger. She was just thirsty." He laughs a little in spite of the situation.

"I was scared I wouldn't get to teach Aiden any big sis'r stuff." She says tiredly.

"You have all the time in the world to teach Aiden big sister stuff. Just, don't ever wander away from us again okay? You really scared us."

"You even scared me." Noah adds.

"But you and Daddy aren't scared of nothing."

"We love you Princess, we're scared of losing you."

"You won't ever lose me, Daddy. I promise." She says, then her heavy eyes flutter closed and she's out for the night.

"Thanks for helping Noah, go home to your family." I hug him and he bumps Finn's fist before making his way toward the front door.

"Maybe we should have tracking devices implanted in them." Finn suggests.

I give a small smile and take his free hand. "Let's go see if we can get your mother to reliquish our son, huh? I wanna go home."

**I was actually starting to feel the symptoms that Kate was when I was writing that. I guess that's easy to do when you know what a panic attack feels like. It's got to be terrifying for a four year old though. But I feel like it's believable for Rachel's child to have anxiety issues. And if any of you find it hard to believe that loving, caring parents could possibly not notice this. Think again, this kind of thing happens more often than you think. The stress of labor, the overwhelming attention from family, all the excitement of a new baby, it could cause you to forget your own name. Also, Katie was only missing for a couple minutes. Just long enough for her to wander down a few hallways, get tired, sit down and sing a verse of a song. :) anyway, I hope you liked it. Keep in mind that these will not be in order. :) **

**Read, Review & Repeat! **

**Love you all :D**

**sincerely, your returning author.**


	2. In Good Company

**_-Puck-_**

The halls are always so quiet and empty at lunch. I've only seen the place look lively once, when I came to pick Beth up for an appointment one day and it was like the circus had come to town. The circus of loud, sticky, midgets.

I round the corner and approach the door to the teacher's lounge when I hear whispers behind me.

"Isn't that your dad?" an unfamiliar voice gets closer and louder.

"Yeah, he eats lunch with my mom everyday." Beth answers with her cavalier tone.

"I think it's sweet, my parents go out to the same restaurant every wednesday for dinner. Stuff like that shows that they love each other, I want a marraige like theirs." Kate adds, her voice always has sighing undertones. She's a hopeless romantic just like her mother.

"I want to marry someone like your dad, he's dreamy." I hope to god that the unfamiliar girl is talking about Finn. I never want to be referred to as "dreamy".

"Hannah that's gross, that's my dad!" Beth's calm tone was dissipated to a shocked gasp.

Hannah is quick to retort, "well all I'm saying is your momma better appreciate what she's got."

"Leave my momma out of it." Beth whispers.

"Oh, can it Hannah, let's go. The lunch line has got to be shorter by now." Kate leads the girls down the opposite hall.

My hand has been frozen on the knob the teacher's lounge throughout the entire exchange. A twelve year old girl has a crush on me. That's new.

"Honey?" Quinn's angelic voice pulls me out of my thoughts. "Puck, baby, what are you doing?"

"Having lunch with my wife?" I lean against the door frame and hold my hand out to her.

She smiles, takes my hand and waves to the other teachers in the lounge. I see Finn out of the corner of my eye and give him a nod.

He nods in return and turns back to the lunch that Rachel, no doubt, packed for him.

The door closes behind us as we head back toward Quinn's classroom to eat.

"Q, do you know a friend of Beth's named Hannah?" I ask her as I take a seat at one of the desks in her room.

"I think she's been to the house before, the name sounds familiar. Why?" She pulls out our lunch basket and hands me a container of left over chili from last night.

"I just heard her talking to the girls in the hallway. She thinks I'm dreamy." I flutter my eyelashes at the insulting word and peal the cover off of my chili.

"Well that's cute, you've got a girlfriend." Quinn teases.

"Oh shut it, you are the only girlfriend I've ever had and that was enough drama to last me a lifetime. How you managed to trick me into marrying you I'll never know." I take a big bite of my chili and smirk at her.

"I prepare your food you know." Quinn narrows her eyes at me and then shoots a glance at our food.

I point my spoon at her, "Touche."

**_-Kate-_**

"Beth?" I snap my fingers in front of her face. "Beth!"

Her eyes go from glazed to alert and she snaps her head up to look at me. "Huh?"

"Are you okay?" I raise one of my eyebrows at her. She's just been staring across the room at Hannah with a curious look on her face for the past ten minutes.

"I just keep thinking about what Hannah said earlier, about my dad? It's so weird, you know? You grow up thinking that the only person your dad is supposed to be with is your mom, right? The thought of anyone else being interested is just, not normal." She shakes her head at the thought and looks down at her charm bracelet, she fiddles with the charms one by one; one of her dad's guitar picks, an old pearl earring of her grandmothers, a tiny eiffel tower, her mother's promise ring and a poker chip fastened to a silver clasp from her parent's honeymoon in Las Vegas. Trinkets that other people wouldn't even look twice at. But Beth and I both know how important to her they are.

"Yeah, I get it. The thought of someone having a crush on one of my parents irks me too. But it's just Hannah, like, what's she gonna do?"

Beth giggles, "Yeah, you're right." She lets the bracelet fall back against her wrist and turns back to her english book open on her desk.

_**-Beth-**_

What's Hannah gonna do? Try to hang out with Kate and I more so that she can come to sleepovers just to see my dad. That's creepy even to think about. Well anyway, it's no big deal. She's twelve and my dad is nuts about my mom, I mean, who wouldn't be. My momma is beautiful. Hannah just barely started wearing training bras.

All this love stuff is really getting on my nerves. My momma gave me the talk before I started middle school, but none of what she said could have prepared me for all the drama. My kids in my class date and break up more times before recess than all of teenage hollywood.

The only girls who appear unaffected by this sudden boy fever outbreak, are Kate and I, and even she seems to be teetering on the edge of crazy.

"I don't know why you look at him like that, it's just Riley." I whisper to her.

She doesn't peel her eyes away from the boy standing in the hall outside our classroom, but responds with a small sigh.

"Why don't you just tell him you like him?" I suggest.

That gets her attention. She whips around to give me a look that could kill.

"Are you crazy?!" She whisper shouts. "He's an 8th grader! Think of the ridicule!"

"Oh please, it's Riley. He hasn't ridiculed since before he knew we were girls." I roll my eyes.

"I'll tell him when the time is right. It'll be perfect." She glances back out into the hall, but Riley's gone. She lets out another sigh and shifts uncomfortably in her chair before returning to her book. But instead of reading the chapter she taps her pencil against the page and gazes out the window, daydreaming, no doubt.

That's Kate for you, the dreamer. Forever with her head in the clouds.

**_-Finn-_**

"I don't understand why you're so concerned with this girl, Puck. She's twelve." Rachel rushes around the kitchen with Quinn, checking the oven, tossing the salad and gathering dinnerware.

"I know, but you should've heard her. It was weird. She called me dreamy!" Puck takes another swig of his beer and shakes his head.

Quinn chuckles at the word and let out a smirk. "I've dealt with student crushes before, it's no big deal." I tell him, throwing a smile to Rachel.

"You? I'm pretty sure I was the one who dealt with that mister." Rachel hands some plates to Quinn who takes off to set the table and answers the ringing phone. "Hello? Oh, hello Hannah. You certainly can." She clasps her hand over the reciever, "KATIE! You have a phone call!" She calls out to the girls who have been sitting a good three inches away from the television, admiring the day's newest boy band for an hour.

We hear some shuffling and suddenly the girls are in the kitchen, Kate takes the phone and curls the cord around her finger. "Hello? oh. Hey." She sounds disappointed.

"Is it him?" Beth whispers. Who's him?

"No, It's Hannah." Kate responds, Beth nods in understanding.

The conversation is short. Lots of "oh really?" "no way!" "yeah, I get it." and "totally". Then she hangs up and the girls walk slowly back to the living room.

Until the phone rings again. Kate jerks backward and sprints for the phone but Rachel gets there first.

"Hello? Yes she's right here," Rachel smiles at Kate and hands her the phone. "It's him." she says, and Kate's eyes light up like firecrackers.

"Who's him?!" I ask, confused and slightly irritated.

"Don't worry honey, it's just Riley."

I nod and glance curiously at Kate. Who's listening intently on whatever Riley's saying with her megawatt smile on her face.

"Is that how you looked when boys called you?" I ask Rachel, teasingly.

She laughs, "Just you." She leans over the kitchen island to give me a chaste kiss and then carries the salad out to the kitchen. "5 minutes Kate, dinners ready."

Kate pouts but nods, quickly turning her attention back to her phone conversation, with Beth leaning against the doorframe, studying Kate's face for any clues as to how the talk is going.

I don't like this "liking boys" thing one bit.

**_-Rachel-_**

"Mommy! MOMMYMOMMYMOMMYYYY!" Aiden comes running into the dining room, almost crashing into Quinn on his way and then begins furiously pulling on the sleeve of my dress.

"What? Sweetie, what is it?!" I try to settle him down. But the boy keeps bouncing up and down, pulling on my arm.

"It's JD, he keeps shooting his dart gun at me. The rule is no shooting people and he's breaking the rule!" His lower lip begins to tremble, and he stomps his foot.

My ever sensitive child.

"JONATHAN!" I shout.

I can hear him running through the house as fast as his tiny legs can carry him. I've never understood the rivalry between Jon and Aiden. Aiden takes after Finn and Jonathan takes after me. Yet the tiny one is always the instigator here.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" He sputters as he reaches us.

I hold my hand out to him and he slowly places the nerf gun in my hand. "No more nerf gun for a week."

"Awww!" He complains.

"Jonathan." Finn warns from the kitchen.

"Okay." He hangs his head and agrees.

"Now go wash your hands for dinner."

**_-Kate-_**

The doorbell rings and I already know it's Uncle Kurt and Uncle Blaine. They have this way of ringing the doorbell and then you can hear Gabe start frantically knocking on the door. He's too impatient to stand out on the doorstep for too long.

No one else seems to have heard the bell so I skip over and pull it open.

"Hey!" I smile at my uncles and open the door wide to let them in.

"Well hello Princess Kate, and how is her majesty this evening?" Uncle Kurt tips his fedora at me and smirks.

He's been calling me Princess Kate since I can remember. For some reason he finds me bossy, yet charming.

I get the charming part.

"Okay, give me your coats and dinner's almost ready so you can just go into the dining room." I tell them

Gabe looks up at me and shoves his finger up his nose.

I gasp and step back. "Gabe, go wash your hands!"

Uncle Blaine looks down at his son, fluffs some of his curls and ushers him towards the bathroom."He's 7, it's okay." He assures me.

"I agree that it's not appropriate and we're trying to break him of it." Kurt crosses his arms and leads his other child into the entryway by the hand.

"Gabweel is unsanitawy." Grace folds her arms over her chest and looks up at Uncle Kurt with pride.

"That's right darling, but that's because he's a boy. Boys are gross, right?"

"Cooties." She answers simply and makes a sour face.

Her dark brown hair falls is thin waves over her pale shoulders and she blows a puff of hair through her bangs to get them out of her hazel eyes.

"Her bangs are getting long," Kurt mumbles as he runs his fingers through Grace's hair.

I just nod and then head toward the dining room with Grace at my heels.

"Kate, does Aiden have cooties?" She asks me.

"Yes, I suppose so."

"Does JD have cooties?"

"Mhm."

"Does you Daddy?"

"Yep."

"My daddies?"

"Yes."

"Does the pwesident have cooties?"

"Yes, Grace." I tell her, sighing. We walk passed my puppy, Cooper and I bend down to scratch his belly.

"Does Coopa have'em?!" She says, shocked. She throws her tiny hands over her mouth and her eyes falls down to the chocolate labrador.

"No, Cooper is a dog, dogs don't have cooties, it's okay to play with him."

"Oh, sweet jeezem mawy and jussef, I'd be awful sad if I couldn't pway with Coopa. I luff him." She slumps down to her knees and her sundress puffs up and billows out around her feet.

I raise an eyebrow at her. Sweet jeezum mary and joseph? That sounds like Uncle Kurt to me.

_**-Finn-**_

"Why is everyone late!? We have this dinner every month! Everyone RSVP'd, so where are they?!" Rachel paces in the dining room while the rest of us sit, staring longingly at the food on the table.

"Not everyone is late, Rach." I remind her. Smiling at my brother and the rest of our guests.

"But my dads! They're NEVER late and Sam? He and Mercedes are usually the first ones here!"

"Rachel!" I snap her out of her hysteria and she stops pacing. "It's only been ten minutes. Just be patient."

As her exhales slowly the doorbell rings and she sprints to the door.

"Dads! You made it! No, no, of course you're not late. I just barely set the table!"

The dinner guests let out a chorus of scoffs and chuckles.

"Okay, so we're only waiting on Sam and Mercedes."

"What about Auntie Tana?" JD pipes up.

"Auntie Tana had to work tonight, she's gonna be up next week though okay?"

JD just nods, she loves when San comes to visit because she usually brings exciting stories about escaped criminals and car chases. What an excellent influence.

"Is Carter coming?" Aiden asks.

"Carter was over last night!" Kate reminds him.

"Yeah but he could be coming tonight too Katie!" Aiden argues.

"Guys, hush. Tina and Mike are on vacation for their anniversary and Carter is staying with his grandparents for the weekend." Rachel explains.

"Riley's not coming." Kate mumbles solemnly.

"You knew that, Kit Kat, It's Rory and Sugar's date night." I nudge her with my elbow and smile. She smiles weakly and nods.

"Well as soon as our final guests arrive, we can eat." Rachel smooths the front of her dress and clasps her hands in front of her.

She loves throwing dinner parties, but they stress her out more than anything. Orignally she wanted to throw them weekly, but I convinced her that that was crazy and we agreed on once a month.

The front door opens and Sam's voice fills the house. "WE'RE HERE!" his words are frantic and he and his family suddenly appear in the doorway to the dining room.

"We're so sorry, Rach. I had a late meeting at work and then _someone_," she glares at Sam, "forgot that it was _his_ turn to pick up Lori from daycare."

Sam's face flushes, "I'm sorry!" He rubs her shoulder and shifts the child in his arms.

"Daddys an idiot." The girl announces.

"Lori!" Mercedes' eyes widen in embarrassment at Lori's outburst.

"But you said so Momma." She points out.

"That's a mommy and daddy word, little girls shouldn't say it." Sam explains to her.

"IDIOT!" Gabe shouts.

Blaine and Kurt stare at the son in between them in terror. "Gabriel!" They say in unison.

"He said little girls. I'm a little boy." Gabe justifies.

"Gabweel! Thats a nawty word!" Grace scolds her brother and I can't stifle the laugh making it's way up my throat.

I let it out and I can feel Rachel glaring at me. I'm gonna pay for that later. I glance at her and I can see her pursing her lips and her cheeks are red. A smile struggles to break through and suddenly she's laughing too.

Soon everyone is laughing and the more everyone laughs, the funnier it gets.

Eventually Rachel gets ahold of her self and wipes tears out of her eyes. "Oh what the heck, the casserole is cold, who wants to order a pizza?"

Everyone agrees and Rachel's fancy monthly dinner party turns into monthly pizza and movie night. Which come to find out is much less stressful.


End file.
